


Marginalia

by Kholran



Series: Spin Me a Tale [4]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 06:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3370718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kholran/pseuds/Kholran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tauriel has always been the one to listen to what Legolas has to say. And sometimes tease him mercilessly for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marginalia

**Author's Note:**

> Marginalia: Notes written in the margins of a manuscript by a reader.

Tauriel claimed victory for the second time in as many tries. Instead of gloating and celebrating as she might have done otherwise, she paused the game, set the controller onto the table in front of her, and turned on the sofa to face Legolas. He was wearing that look of confusion he had when he thought about something too hard.

“Okay. I never win this level. What’s up?”

Legolas set aside his own controller and ran a hand through his hair while he composed his thoughts. “I think…I think there’s something going on with my dad,” he said at last.

“What do you mean?” She could tell by the worry in his voice he thought it was something serious, but she couldn’t begin to imagine what. Thranduil hadn’t seemed any different to her lately. If anything, he seemed…well, not really happy, but less of a personified storm cloud than he had been in a long time. “You think it’s something bad?”

“No. I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t know. He’s…been…going out…a lot. Nearly every Saturday for the past two months.”

Tauriel quirked a brow and tried not to laugh. It probably wasn’t so funny to Legolas. “So let me get this straight. Your problem is that he’s acting like a typical person? I thought that was what you wanted. Weren’t you even the one who demanded he get out of the house more often?”

Legolas fixed her with a long-suffering look, the sort that made him look uncannily like his father. “You know what I mean. It’s like, all of a sudden he’s never here. And the one weekend he did stay home, he was acting…I don’t even know. Edgy? For him, it’s weird. Kind of like it would be if _you_ suddenly got a life and stopped being here so much.”

Tauriel rolled her eyes, but she really couldn’t dispute the statement. She spent more time in Thranduil’s home than she did in her own, two houses down. Only six when her grandparents had taken over her guardianship, she was already a precocious child, and she and Legolas had hit it off instantly. They’d been inseparable ever since, to the point where an eight-year-old Legolas had stubbornly refused to set foot in a private school because Tauriel couldn’t go there with him.

Legolas was fourteen when his world changed forever, and while Tauriel didn’t have much memory of losing her own parents, she could still relate in a way that few others could. If anything, it made them even closer. She’d been there for Legolas when his relationship with his father had strained nearly to its breaking point in the wake of the accident, and she’d been an outlet for him to talk to about his mother when Thranduil had shut down and refused. She’d been his shoulder to cry on when adapting to his father’s sudden blindness seemed like an overwhelming prospect, and she’d been the one to keep encouraging him not to give up.

Their relationship was never anything but platonic, and neither one of them ever wanted it to be, but that didn’t lessen its value.

“You’re never going to get rid of me,” Tauriel assured, flipping her auburn hair back out of her eyes. She was still getting used to it being cut so short after having it down her back for most of her life. “Anyway, maybe you should just _ask him about it_ like the almost-adult you are. Unless it’s something you don’t want to know about. Maybe he’s meeting someone and they’re having a tawdry affair in some shabby old motel where no one asks for anyone’s name.”

“Excellent use of this week’s vocabulary word. But you’ve been reading too many bad novels, and I don’t think that’s very likely.”

“Why not? In case you haven’t noticed, your dad is kind of hot.”

“ _Tauriel_!”

The look of shock on Legolas’ face was totally worth making the comment in the first place, and this time she didn’t fight the laughter that bubbled up. “What? I’m just saying!” she added innocently when she could speak again. The smile on her face was anything but innocent.

“Well, I’m saying ‘Eww’.”

“Good. He’s your father. I’d worry about you if _you_ thought he was hot.”

“Please stop talking.”

“Relax, I’m kidding. You two just aren’t my type.” She stretched herself out on the sofa, draping her legs casually across Legolas’ lap and leaning back against the armrest. He picked at a loose threat at the bottom of her jeans, and she should have seen it coming by the slow grin spreading across his face.

“So who is? That kid who was staring at you after school yesterday?”

Tauriel felt her face go suddenly hot. “Kili? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” She knew right away the words had come out too fast and too forced to sound genuine. Legolas would see straight through her. She could see his eyes narrowing in suspicion already.

“Seriously, Tauriel? He’s a ninth grader! And one of Thorin Oakenshield’s nephews. You’d be banned from this house forever if you started dating him.”

“Oh who cares if he is? I mean…he’s pretty tall for a freshman. Don’t you think?”

It was Legolas’ turn to raise an eyebrow at her. She couldn’t meet his eye, and chose instead to focus on a particularly interesting spot on the far wall. “I swear if you breathe a single word about it to anyone, I’m going to tell everyone about your crush on Aragorn.”

Legolas gasped and clutched at his heart, exclaiming, “ _You wouldn’t dare_!” but not even the melodramatics could hide the shade of pink he turned. Tauriel obviously wasn’t supposed to know about that.

But she did.

“He is ruggedly handsome, I can see why you’d be interested. I could always ask him—” Her words were cut off when Legolas threw a sofa pillow at her. Naturally, it started a war.

~*~

By the time Thranduil got home, Legolas’ concerns were all but forgotten and the two were heaped on the floor, surrounded by an assortment of pillows, laughing themselves to the verge of tears. He decided this was one of those times that he just shouldn’t ask.


End file.
